But Rabbitohs chief executive Shane Richardson has warned not to place too much expectation on Greg Inglis.

The superstar Melbourne centre signed a three-year deal with South Sydney yesterday to finally end weeks of speculation about his future having broken a handshake deal with Brisbane after being courted by Russell Crowe and Anthony Mundine.

Although there are still some finer details to be ratified, including a legal bill with Melbourne that had been used as a smokescreen to explain his problems with the Broncos, the Storm has granted Inglis permission to train with Souths. And the Queensland and Australia centre could be at Redfern as early as Monday.

"I think he's an outstanding player and his record speaks for itself," Richardson said yesterday.

"He's only 23 years of age and there are not too many negatives about Greg Inglis. In fact there's none.

"It's a great signing for the club, but we've still got to deliver on the field with the team we've got.

"Just because we've signed Greg Inglis doesn't mean all the hard work's done.

"We've been building up for a long while, but he's certainly the icing on the cake."

TAB Sportsbet's Glenn Munsie said he had taken $422 worth of bets yesterday on next year's premiership following news that Inglis would wear the red and green colours next season. And $350 of that had been on Souths to win the title.

Premier St George Illawarra is the $5.50 favourite to win back-to-back titles in 2011 but the addition of Inglis to a roster that already includes Sam Burgess, Dave Taylor and Issac Luke has seen the Rabbitohs' price trimmed to be second favourite at $7.

"If you look at how they went last year before they got all their injuries at the one time, they were going to run in probably the top five at the absolute worst," Munsie said.

"It just gives them a different dimension to score tries and be penetrative in the backs."

Rabbitohs great Bob McCarthy said he rated Inglis to be the best player to pull on a Souths jumper since legendary lock Coote and said he hoped he could end a premiership drought which stretches back to 1971.

"He's got that X-factor about him and he's got everything you need," McCarthy said.

"Plus he's big, he's brilliant, he's quick, he's over 100kg, he's 6ft 4in and he's hard to handle.

"I thought we had the side to do it last year and I'm pretty sure if we can get them all on the field I'm pretty sure we can give it a bit of a touch-up."

Inglis's former Storm teammate Cameron Smith, who is in camp with the Kangaroos preparing for tonight's Four Nations final against New Zealand, said the Clive Churchill medallist could have a huge bearing on the foundation club.

"They've got a fair side and he might be just the player they needed to get things going," Smith said.

"They've been fairly close the last couple of years.

"Everyone has seen what he can do for teams. He brings a lot of confidence to the players around him and when he turns in a good game, he's pretty much unstoppable."

The only remaining hurdle is Inglis's $113,000 legal bill, which stems from his successful defence of an assault charge against fiancee Sally Robinson in 2009.

The Melbourne centre is unhappy about getting stuck with the full amount and is only willing to pay $60,000 while the Storm and Souths are unwilling to pay a chunk of it as they would have to include the amount in their salary cap the following season.

"We will continue to hold dialogue with all of the parties involved over the weekend and remain hopeful of a resolution to this matter early next week," Storm chief executive Ron Gauci said.

"Until that time we have granted Greg permission to commence training duties with South Sydney."